store the json file that contains private key

Question

I am trying to access Google play developer API https://developers.google.com/android-publisher/ to build an inapp purchase subscriptions for my company Application.

Answer 1

Do not bundle it into the application. Instead, store it in an application specific directory like ~/.MyApp with any filename of your choice, for instance epocratesserviceaccount.json.

For better security, it might be a good idea to set unix file attributes to restrict access to current user only:

chmod 400 ~/.MyApp/epocratesserviceaccount.json

Note that many user secrets are stored this way - for instance your ssh private key.